Housing Plan: Regions put the brakes on it – it curtails the powers of local authorities

Greater involvement in the programme’s structure. And a step back on certain provisions of Decree 66/2026 that encroach on their remit, starting with the one concerning the commissioner. This is the reasoning behind the Conference of Regions’ request to postpone the examination of the Housing Plan, which was on the agenda for Thursday 11 June.

Following an initial indication at Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Infrastructure Committee of the State-Regions Conference, where the first objections to the measure were raised, Chairman Fedriga prudently postponed consideration of the measure to allow for further reflection and – according to sources close to the matter – to prevent the discussion from turning into a rejection of the measure. The regions are contesting several points of the government’s programme and are requesting a meeting with the Prime Minister’s Office to secure amendments: from next week, the Environment Committee in the Chamber of Deputies will begin examining the amendments. However, they are also calling for more time to examine individual issues in depth through dedicated working groups, one of a technical nature but which will be accompanied by discussions of a political nature as well. The Infrastructure Committee’s vote against the bill remains on record, albeit mitigated by the abstentions of Lombardy and Abruzzo and the absence of the other regions led by the centre-right. “The Housing Plan is an indispensable tool,” explains Marco Scajola, a Ligurian councillor and chair of the Conference’s Housing Policy Committee, “and we have welcomed the structure of the Housing Plan. However, we are calling for our proposed amendments to be accepted and for a technical-political working group to be set up.”

Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Campania, the Autonomous Province of Bolzano and Sardinia have explicitly expressed their opposition. “None of the regions voted in favour of the plan,” said Fabio Barcaioli, the Umbria Regional Councillor for Housing Policy. Following the vote, the President of the Conference of Regions, Massimiliano Fedriga, called for the opinion on the Housing Plan to be postponed.

According to Marco Scajola, deputy coordinator of the Building Commission, this postponement is intended to ‘organise a meeting with the Prime Minister’s Office and the relevant ministries to seek an agreement that incorporates the amendments proposed by the regions’. According to Barcaioli, the negative opinion is based on resources deemed insufficient, the absence of funding for rent subsidies and for the fund for tenants in arrears through no fault of their own, as well as the powers granted to the special commissioner, which are considered to undermine the role of the regions and local authorities. In particular, the Unified Conference, which, as internal sources explain, nevertheless welcomed the allocation of funds for housing, has raised serious concerns regarding the powers over which the Regions have exclusive jurisdiction. They will therefore seek clarification on the role of the Commissioner, on the allocation of proceeds from the sale and rental of social housing – seeking to amend the provision that currently directs these funds to the state coffers rather than directly to the former IACP institutions or local authorities – as well as on the role of Invitalia. Everything has therefore been postponed, but with an eye on the calendar. The decree must still be finalised for conversion by 8 July, and its passage through the Unified Conference must fall within that timeframe.

Political reactions were not long in coming, starting with the leading figures of the governing coalition. The Vice-President of the European Commission, Raffaele Fitto, commented, “I won’t get into the details of internal discussions”, but added that “with the mid-term review, the European Commission has given Member States and regions the opportunity to allocate resources to housing. Italia has utilised just over one billion euros of this. At European level, we have mobilised 3.3 billion euros in housing funds. We now await proposals from the government and the regions and will assess them accordingly”. The opposition, however, is on the offensive. For Democratic Party MP Marco Simiani, “the request for a postponement put forward by the regions confirms that the government’s Housing Plan presents significant shortcomings that cannot be ignored”, and he speaks of “a rejection” in a context where “it is significant that no region, not even those led by the right, has expressed a favourable opinion”. He is echoed by AVS Vice-President in the Chamber of Deputies Marco Grimaldi (AVS), who retorts: “The regions have said no. And they were right to do so. The Infrastructure Conference has blocked the government’s Housing Plan. A resounding, cross-party vote that not even the majority can ignore”.